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From Patristics to Postmodernity: Does a Message Still Exist?

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From Patristics to Postmodernity: Does a Message Still Exist? Scholars Crossing Other Graduate Scholarship School of Divinity 2015 From Patristics to Postmodernity: Does a Message Still Exist? Douglas Taylor Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_grad_schol Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Taylor, Douglas, "From Patristics to Postmodernity: Does a Message Still Exist?" (2015). Other Graduate Scholarship. 1. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_grad_schol/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Divinity at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Other Graduate Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. From Patristics to Postmodernity: Does a Message Still Exist? Submitted for Consideration to Evangelical Theological Society 2015 Eastern Region Meeting by Doug Taylor February 5, 2015 CONTENTS GLEANINGS FROM THE PATRISTICS ......................................................................................1 When, Unity, Diversity, and Why ...........................................................................................1 A Common Foe ...............................................................................................................2 Divergences .....................................................................................................................3 The Significance ......................................................................................................................5 HERMENEUTICAL PILLARS ......................................................................................................7 Establishing Parameters ...........................................................................................................7 The Origin and Definition ...............................................................................................8 Heresy Brings Us Together – Or Does It? ......................................................................9 Second-Order Stipulation ..............................................................................................10 The Faith of a Child ......................................................................................................11 Proposed Pillars .....................................................................................................................12 Reading in Context ........................................................................................................12 Richness of Language ...................................................................................................14 Literal ....................................................................................................................14 Allegory ................................................................................................................14 History ..................................................................................................................15 Typology ...............................................................................................................15 Tropology .............................................................................................................16 Anagoge ................................................................................................................16 Standing on the Shoulders .............................................................................................16 Regula Fidei ..........................................................................................................17 Paradidomi ............................................................................................................18 ii Eschatological Impact ...................................................................................................19 PARADIDOMI: REGARDING TOMORROW ...........................................................................21 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................24 iii GLEANINGS FROM THE PATRISTICS Dr. David Wheeler once advised that while not all are called to be an evangelist, all Christians are called to be evangelical. Although some may counter that postmodernity is waning, the question remains how one might be evangelical in a postmodern world. The concept that no metanarrative exists has been one of the pillars of postmodernity, and as such challenges the premise that Scripture contains an overarching story encompassing all of mankind. If Dr. Wheeler was correct, and all are called to be evangelical, then the question that would seem to require answering is how one might begin to address the challenge that metanarratives do not exist. By studying the Patristics it is suggested that it is possible to demonstrate that the challenges facing the Church today are identical to those of the past, and if this theory is correct, then it would appear reasonable to believe that some of the techniques used by the early fathers would bear fruit if employed today. In an effort to demonstrate this thesis, this paper shall focus on three main matters. First, the Patristics will be briefly examined in an effort to identify areas of commonality and difference. Second, an effort will be made to propose some principles of sound hermeneutics that could help the biblical scholar of today. The third staple will be to tie the past and present together in an effort to demonstrate the validity that the metanarrative of the Church not only exists, but continues to stand upon the shoulders of those that came before. When, Unity, Diversity, and Why The Patristic Era shall be defined for the purposes of this paper as those years beginning with the death of John (ca. 100) and ending at AD 500. It is conceded that such dating is arbitrarily chosen, but shall sufficiently serve the purpose herein, and is satisfactorily broad enough to include Ignatius through the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. By way of examining 1 2 the fathers, it has been decided to focus first on their commonalities and then turn to articulated differences. A Common Foe When one looks to the first five hundred years in general, and to the fathers in particular, there is commonality in that all chased common foes, namely any philosophy, ideology, religiosity, schism, or heresy that challenged the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Hall, citing Boniface Ramsey, notes that in order to have the title of “father” in the early Church, one had to meet four distinct criteria. “Father” and related terms such as “patristic,” “patrology,” and “patrologist,” suggest, Ramsey believes, “a certain venerable quality associated with age. Second was the quality of holiness of life. Third, one must have left behind a teaching of some kind, however small, or at least a reputation. Beyond this, and most importantly, the church must have recognized a father’s teaching as resting within the bounds of Scripture and tradition. Finally, the father had ecclesiastical approval, meaning it was the church itself who affirmed the individual as a father.1 What cannot be missed from the above is that the fathers accepted external leadership, trusting secondarily in the Church and primarily in Jesus Christ. The title of father came from the believing body and was not something that one could simply apply in a manner analogous to Napoleon’s crowning of himself to avoid Papal oversight. The congruence among the fathers was that they all retained the person of Jesus Christ as the seat of primacy, along with the written Scriptures associated with the revelation of Jesus. Truly, even of Origen it has been said that the priority of Scripture was key. When we come to examine more closely the various senses which Origen distinguishes in Scripture, we should first note that Origen, whose name is a byword for the use of allegory, is also the same person who gave much more weight than ever before to the literal sense; and even if on the one hand, he criticizes the simpliciores for stopping at 1 Christopher A. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1998), 50-55. 3 this level, he is capable on the other hand of integrating it into an organic system of interpretation.2 It is the union of the two points above, namely what it took to be considered a father along with the explicit preeminence of Jesus and then Scripture as a witness to Him, that created the brotherhood that stood against the attacks on the faith. It was this band of brothers that both established and defended orthodoxy against the likes of Arianism, Marcionism, Gnosticism, and Montinism by putting forth the effort to establish clearly constructed ways of expressing what orthodox Christianity believed as compared to alternative philosophies. Of the Gnostic attack in particular Simonetti states, While Clement’s manner of interpretation was aimed at fostering acceptance by the Church of the Old Testament, now relieved of any typically Jewish prescriptions as a normative code for morality alongside the New Testament, the interpretative style of Ps. Barnabas became ever more established as the specifically Christian method of reading the
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